“Oh, my gosh, I was so robbed!” Trebunskaya, 31, told reporters backstage after she and Lachey, 36, learned their fate. “Are you kidding me? I have an amazing partner. We had so much fun together. I feel robbed of having the fun of working with this person.”

Lachey supported his partner’s sentiments.

“I feel disappointed that it came to an end,” he said. “There are fantastic dancers on the show. Everyone knows it and everyone sees it every week. [But] do I think we’re going home too early? Absolutely. I don’t think there’s anybody in this ballroom who would disagree with that.”

Lachey, who admits he takes his dismissal “personally,” was let down when the previous night that started out strong turned into one of the lower-scoring performances of the evening.

“When we first got our scores, we were like, ‘Yes! That’s great,’ ” he says. “And then we saw how the scores kept getting higher and higher and higher and higher, and we were like, ‘Really? We’re second to the bottom?’ ”

Continues the 98 Degrees singer, “I take pride in what I do, and to me, it’s kind of ironic that the two Broadway performers – me and Joey [Fatone] – are gone already. It’s a little odd to me. But that’s part of the unpredictability of the show. It sucks. It really sucks.”

Helio to Miss Shedding the Pounds

If anyone will miss Drew shimmying on the dance floor, it’s his brother, Nick Lachey.

“We’ve really enjoyed watching him,” Nick tells PEOPLE, referring to himself and wife Vanessa. “This is something he’s incredible at, and the chance to do it again as part of an all-star season has been awesome for him. He’s my best friend and my brother, and no matter what it is, I’ll be there for him.”

Helio Castroneves, 37, the second eliminated contestant of the evening, is slightly more accepting of his inability to continue on with the competition.

“I’m thankful to have had an incredible partner to teach me to dance,” he says. “I have no regrets – it was great.”

“I was losing a lot [of weight],” he says. “I believe I’m about 143 [lbs.] right now. It’s been seven years [since] I’ve been that weight. I did [the] Freshology [meal plan]. It was very good, very helpful.”

As for his partner Chelsie Hightower, “I’m burning my dress,” she said, presumably joking, of the ensemble she wore when she got the boot. “Yeah, of course [I’m going to burn it].”